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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24478660">Dulce et Decorum est</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bittereloquence/pseuds/Bittereloquence'>Bittereloquence</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Aftermath of Violence, But if you want to squint and read it as romance go you good thing, Clone Lives Suck, Fusion of Star Wars Legends and Disney Canon, Gen, Gratuitous Amounts of Headcanon, Introspection, Just my shameless self-indulgence at this point, Post-Battle of Geonosis, Rex &amp; Cody are best friends, clone culture</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 07:55:55</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,012</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24478660</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bittereloquence/pseuds/Bittereloquence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>To a clone, the best sort of death is to die for their Jedi and for the Republic, that is something that has been told to them since they were decanted. Over and over again like a mantra until it is woven into the fabric of their very realities. But after their first taste of battle, a young clone is forced to face the fact that maybe there should be more to their lives than to just die for the Republic.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Boil &amp; Waxer (Star Wars), CC-2224 | Cody &amp; CT-7567 | Rex</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>36</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Star Wars Fanfiction Discord</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Dulce et Decorum est</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hello, welcome to my near 5,000 word Ted Talk about how much clone lives suck and how military indoctrination is an awful thing set against the backdrop that was the aftermath of the First Battle of Geonosis. This is in part inspired by one of my favorite WWI war poems by  Wilfred Owen as well as my doing a deep dive into Wookipedia and realizing back in Legends Cody was supposedly a Captain and only got promoted to Commander by Obi-Wan. Also I could have SWORN at some point he did actually fight in Geonosis and I just wanted him and Rex finding one another after a horrible battle and being glad they both made it through the shit to fight another day. It took 5,000 words but I finally got them bumping foreheads together and being quietly soft boys in the middle of chaos. A huge thank you goes out to <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/lisianpeia">lisianpeia</a> for helping to beta this thing and also for being an all-around champ as well as the good folks over at the Clone Centre Discord for putting up with my shenanigans and letting me say things like 'fornicating with a Wookie' without throwing me out immediately on my ear.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>My friend, you would not tell with such high zest<br/>
To children ardent for some desperate glory,<br/>
The old Lie: <i>Dulce et decorum est</i><br/>
<i>Pro patria mori<br/>
</i>
- Wilfred Owen</p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>The worst thing about Geonosis was the karking <i>dust</i> with the heat coming in a firm second place. Cody had only been on this planet for less than half a planetary rotation and he already hated it. He hadn’t even seen combat but had come down with the second wave of fighters sent in to clean up and reinforce their numbers if needed but even he hated this planet after only a few short hours on it. </p><p>He longed for the cool, salt-laden air of Kamino both because it was the only real place he’d ever known but also because this awful planet already held the worst kind of memories. </p><p>They’d lost more brothers today than he cared to think about. Once the fighting had stopped, they were left to tend to their dead and dying. As company commander, it had been up to him to account for every lost soul and he knew he wasn’t the only officer struggling under the burden of his duties. </p><p>Their trainers had prepared him for this and had drilled the knowledge that they would not be able to save everyone under their command into their heads practically from the crèche. And Cody had shown enough early promise that he and a handful of other clone commanders had been tapped for more specialized training. </p><p>It had been the hardest training of his young life, had very nearly cost him his life in point of fact and he would be sporting the marks of his own stupidity for all to see on his face for the rest of his life. </p><p>If it hadn’t been for Rex, the lone clone trooper in their training class, he might have died. Cody knew some of the other clone commanders had originally been skeptical about the inclusion of a CT in their training class but Rex had proven himself to be just as capable of keeping up with them. A few snide comments about his blond mutation and diluted genetic stock had been traded and CC-1138 had ended up in medical with a broken nose but things had settled down for the most part after that. </p><p>For his part, Cody hadn’t minded having the younger clone around and a tenuous friendship had formed between them. Halfway through their training under Alpha-17 when a frag grenade had gone off and peppered his face with shrapnel, it had been Rex who helped drag his ass the last five clicks through rough jungle terrain to complete their wilderness training. It had been a solo one versus one exercise and Rex had disobeyed the rules of the op to help drag him out of that jungle and had ended up failing the exercise in the process. </p><p>To this day, Cody couldn’t say for certain whether Alpha-17 and the rest of the trainers had been aware of the distress beacon and had opted to ignore it to see how the two cadets handled adverse setbacks on the field or if the long-necks back at the base had been truthful when they said the beacon had malfunctioned. In the end, it didn’t matter one way or another but it definitely seemed like the kind of thing Alpha-17 would have done. The man had been tough on them, fair but there hadn’t been an ounce of mercy in that man’s soul. </p><p>He’d been tasked with molding them into the best officers he could and if he had to cut some excess fat along the way, so be it. In the end, Cody accepted it had been worth it. He’d managed to keep his eye and had gained a brother in arms in Rex. </p><p>Which made the knowledge that his brother was most likely dead all the more a bitter pill to swallow. Cody had been in contact with Gree who informed him that Rex had been on one of the gunships with the <i>Jetiise</i> Skywalker and Kenobi. Most of those ships had been shot down and so far, no one had heard from Rex or his team since they dropped out of radio contact.</p><p>Cody tried to tell himself that it just meant they were out of radio contact. It didn’t mean his <i>vod </i> was dead until he saw his numbers or name on the confirmed KIA list, it didn’t mean <i>anything</i>. </p><p>Thankfully, he had more than enough things to keep his mind and body occupied for the most part. The men needed to be bivouacked for the evening which was not an easy feat by any stretch of the imagination. There had been plenty of kark-ups today but considering it was the first en masse deployment of this scale and the complete lack of prep they’d had, it was hard not to feel a small measure of pride in how they had proven themselves. </p><p>When Grandmaster Yoda had appeared like a diminutive whirlwind calling up the clones to action, Cody heard even Lama Su’s legendary poise had been put to the test. Nevertheless, the prime minister had persevered and within a few hours of the <i>Jetii’s</i> arrival on Kamino, they were shipping out, bound for a planet none of them had ever heard of before. </p><p>It was enough to make the tactician in him swell with pride even as the realities had come crashing home. They were being called into service. People were <b>dying</b>. </p><p>Funeral pyres burned near the ruined remains of the arena. Much to Cody’s surprise, the Jedi had made no distinction between their dead and those of the clone troopers who had fallen in battle. He’d expected more…well, he didn’t know what he had been expecting from the near-mythic beings they had been created and bred to serve. </p><p>The Jedi were as fearsome and as awe-inspiring as Cody had expected them to be. But what he hadn’t expected was how easily they died as the rest of them. He’d built them up in his mind from the stories they had heard but they were just as frail and easily broken as the clones. </p><p>Maybe even more so considering they didn’t wear plastoid armor or go into battle wielding anything more than those glow-sticks of theirs. Sure, they had the <i>Force</i> on their side but that apparently hadn’t been enough to stop blaster bolts from the combined forces of Dooku’s forces. </p><p>So many of them had died today, it was upsetting when he allowed himself to think about it. Both <i>vode</i> but more importantly, a large number of <i>Jetii</i> had fallen in battle despite their best efforts.</p><p>He could still hear the trainer’s voices in his head now telling him from the crèche that they had been bred, created to serve the Jedi and the Republic. <i>‘Your life is nothing in comparison to that of a Jedi. The best sacrifice a clone can hope to make is to lay down their lives to protect that of their Jedi and the Republic.’</i> </p><p>Those words or some variation of it had been repeated so many times it had become rote. </p><p>There were certain core tenants to a clone’s life that were simply accepted as gospel and that was one of them. </p><p>Even if they had won the battle at least on flimsi, it didn’t particularly feel that way when Cody looked at the funeral pyres and the bodies of the dead who were being carried off on stretchers. </p><p>“Come to join the party, captain?” A voice broke him out of his reverie. The <i>Kaminii</i> had prided themselves in the homogenetic integrity of their product but to the clones, the subtle differences stood out like a sore thumb. They didn’t all look alike, didn’t all sound alike and while he couldn’t claim to know every brother from the other, he did recognize Slick’s voice. </p><p>He’d proven himself in training to be a capable and level-headed soldier during training which had been part of the reason Cody had advocated for him to receive a promotion. The man had made it up to sergeant under his own merit but he hadn’t forgotten the subtle push the other clone had given him during training to aspire towards more. </p><p>“Looking for someone…” He confided softly and he didn’t miss the way Slick’s expression went a little grim and sad. They’d both lost friends tonight. </p><p>“We’ve just about finished processing most of the bodies. I can check the lists?” The sergeant was heading up the funeral detail, making sure every brother was accounted for and that they received the proper respect they deserved. Neither man commented on the neatly stacked piles of plastoid armor that had been reclaimed from the bodies. Armor cost credits to replace and sadly, these <i>vode</i> didn’t need theirs anymore. It would be reclaimed just like their weapons had been and checked over before being folded back into the GAR’s supply stores.</p><p>“I’m sorry you got assigned this duty, Slick. I know it’s not the detail anyone would have asked for.” But he’d had faith the sergeant could see it through to the end. </p><p>A troubled look briefly flashed across the other clone’s face before he looked away. “Someone has to do it, captain. Least this way, I know they’re getting treated with some dignity.” </p><p>“You’re a good man, Slick.” Cody reassured him with a comforting hand on his shoulder. </p><p>“I just hope it’s worth it, sir.” It was only with time and hindsight that Cody looked back on this conversation with fresh realization. After Christophsis, after Slick’s betrayal of them had come to light that perhaps this had been the moment things had begun to go wrong for the other clone. And he questioned whether or not he’d inadvertently put him on the path he’d gone down by asking too much of him that day. But then, he remembered Slick had been the one to make his choices, every single one of them and in the end, he’d chosen to take the path he had taken. </p><p>It had been a hollow-comfort in the face of the sting of betrayal. </p><p>“I do too. We saved two Jedi and a member of the Senate today; that has to be worth something, right? Besides…something tells me today, tomorrow…maybe next month or half a year we would have been deployed either way. You saw what Dooku had at his disposal. He’s obviously been planning for this war for a long time. This just happened to be the tipping point is all.”</p><p>“I guess you’re right, sir. Maybe this was inevitable.” Slick said with an inscrutable look on his face. “Who are you looking for, captain? One of your batchers? Things are a bit sketchy as far as communication goes with the other battalions but I can see what I can manage?”</p><p>“No, I was looking for Captain Rex. Someone told me they’d started bringing back the bodies from the detachment that went with who pursued Dooku with the rest of the Jedi?” </p><p>“Color me surprised.” The sergeant drawled with a tired-looking smile. “The two of you are thick as thieves. Or was it something more?” A speculative look entered Slick’s eyes when he said that and Cody felt his ears start to go hot with embarrassment. </p><p>They both knew there were certain brothers who had…special relationships with other brothers. Arrangements that went on hopefully underneath the radar of the long-necks and their trainers because that was what happened when you filled hundreds of young sentients through accelerated growth hormones and subjected them to an intense form of rapid puberty. They did what every other young sentient did, they experimented, explored their sexual proclivities and some found they shared a taste for the familiarity of another brother. </p><p>He knew he was probably skating the edge of being seen as playing favorites but Rex wasn’t under his direct command so it was alright to show concern, wasn’t it? Besides, with his recent promotion, they were currently the same rank so it wasn’t even like they could be accused of Cody holding any influence over the other clone because he outranked him. But this was the first time he’d had someone else so directly imply there was something <i>more</i> going on with Rex and himself.  He didn’t know how to feel about, didn’t know how to <i>respond</i> to that implication.</p><p>“It’s not like that, we’re just friends.” </p><p>Slick held up his hands in a universal sign of acceptance. “Fair enough, not my business either way. I’m happy to report I haven’t seen him here. Have you checked with medical?” </p><p>“Yes, they had nothing to report either.” </p><p>“I heard a lot of those boys got strung out across twenty clicks of desert. He might still be making his way back to the LZ.” Slick offered the suggestion neutrally. “It’s still pretty chaotic out there.” </p><p>“He’ll turn up eventually. If you do hear something, would you let me know?”</p><p>“Of course, sir.”</p><p>“Can I get you and your men anything?” Cody asked, shooting the other man a curious look. </p><p>“Some more filters for our helmets? I know the <i>vode</i> down at the pyres would appreciate it. The smell…it’s…”</p><p>“I understand. I’ll see to it right now.” He said softly and Slick looked relieved to not have to finish that awful sentence. This wasn’t something their trainers on Kamino could have prepared them for. Sure, they spoke of casualties and how to handle a weakening in their strength. They even taught burial procedures depending on the terrain and the situation. Too many times, those procedures dictated they leave the body where it lay. </p><p>What they hadn’t told them about was the psychological strain of having to breathe in the acrid smell of burning flesh and knowing you were breathing in the partials and atoms of your dead <i>brothers</i> if you actually got the luxury of actually burning the corpses rather than leaving them to rot in the field. </p><p>There weren’t burial grounds for clones.  </p><p>Cody didn’t think there ever had been any plans for such a thing and he doubted there ever would be. </p><p>Maybe that was why Jango Fett had been so insistent about instilling his Mandalorian customs into them. In teaching the older clones how to say their Remembrances and the significance of it.  He had in turn entrusted them to disseminate this information down to the younger generations of clones. Cody didn’t understand fully why the man had withdrawn emotionally from his duties towards the clones as he had as the years had gone. Especially when he had such vivid and distinct memories of the man when he had been younger. </p><p>He’d been more engaged with them, more eager to share his culture. But somewhere along the way, he’d become more and more distant. He centered his attention on Boba alone, spent more time away from Kamino until finally; there had been an impenetrable wall between the man and the products of his generic material. </p><p>Somewhere among the dead, Jango Fett lay, his head separated from his body by a Jedi’s lightsaber.</p><p>Cody hadn’t been able to sit down and really examine how he felt about that situation. There was a part of him that mourned for the man, mourned for the memory he had of him. But in the end, he had betrayed the Republic. Had tried to kill the very people his clones had been created to protect. </p><p>The cognitive dissonance of that realization was too much for the young clone. </p><p>“Do you know what happened to Fett’s body?” Cody asked and judging by the surprised look on the clone sergeant’s face, it had been the last thing he expected him to say. But then, that surprise shifted into a small, troubled frown.</p><p>“I believe the <i>Kaminii</i> laid claim to it. Some <i>osik</i> about preserving his genetic stock.” The barest hint of a sneer could be seen tugging at the other clone’s lip when he said that.</p><p>“Sounds about right,” He agreed glumly and then he came to the realization that without Jango Fett alive, what <i>would</i> the Kaminoans do once they ran out of their stolen pieces of Jango Fett’s body? None of the clones were one hundred percent identical to the Original, even Cody who had a relatively high amount of genetic similarity to Jango Fett but he was barely over ninety percent similar to the Original.</p><p>The Kaminoans had done all sorts of weird things to their DNA to alter and ‘modify’ them in order to better suit the specifics of the Jedi’s needs. He supposed they would just have to stretch his DNA further with newer generations of clones from here. </p><p>Not that they’d see the fruits of that particular labor any time soon because it took a long time to grow a clone. </p><p>“I’ll see about those filters right now, Slick. Is there anything else I can do for you and your men?”</p><p>Slick could read the guilt in Cody’s body language and knew the officer was wrestling with regret at assigning them to funeral duty but as he’d told him, someone had to do the dirty deed. And Cody wasn’t bad as far as officers went. </p><p>“Just the filters will do us for now, thank you, captain.” He said, letting the officer off the hook, a kindness Cody was silently grateful for. </p><p>“Alright, but if the situation changes, let me know at once.” The clone captain ordered softly and turned to make his way to the supply area in search of a quartermaster so he could order fresh sets of particulate filters for the funeral guard’s helmets only to immediately run into a problem with that.</p><p>“Sir, I’m sorry, we don’t have any on hand.”</p><p>“What do you mean we don’t have any on hand? We did a full supply check before we left Kamino.”</p><p>“I know, sir. But it’s the dust in the air; it’s been clogging up troopers filtration units so we’ve been burning through them like crazy.</p><p>“Then find some. This is for the <i>vode</i> working the funeral pyres. I don’t care what you have to do, but I need those filters delivered to Sergeant Slick.” His mind worked furiously for a solution. “Pull them from any spare helmets if we need to.” </p><p>Dismay shown on the hapless clone’s face because that went against regs and they both knew it. </p><p>“I’ll sign off on it if needs be.” Better his ass on the line than the quartermasters if the GAR came down on them. </p><p>“I might be able to yank them from the reclaimed helmets. It’s not like their former owners need them anymore.”</p><p>Cody bit back a sigh because that really was the best option even if it was a distasteful one. But he didn’t see any other choice in the matter. “If you could scrounge up some fresh ones for the <i>vode</i> on funeral duty, that would be ideal. But if that’s the best we can manage, so be it. Just get them to Sergeant Slick as soon as you can. And send as many backups as you can spare. They’ve got a long night ahead of them and no brother should have to go through what they’re doing choking on the stench of dead <i>vode</i>.” </p><p>It was perhaps a little petty of him to point that out but if it helped light a fire under the quartermaster’s ass, so be it. Let him stew with the knowledge of just <i>why</i> those particulate filters were so desperately needed. </p><p>“Yes, sir. I’ll get right on it.” </p><p>“Thank you, Keys.” He said fighting back another wash of tiredness as he mentally added a reminder to his running list of things to do if he ever had any spare time.  To get with the supply officers in his battalion and come up with a plan for a more specialized supply list depending on the unique needs of future campaigns. </p><p>That list just seemed to keep growing and his downtime seemed to keep shrinking by the minute. </p><p>He’d no sooner left the supply tent than his comlink was going off again but this time, it was with happier news.</p><p>“Captain Cody?” He recognized Waxer’s voice immediately as he thumbed it on. </p><p>”What is it Waxer?” </p><p>”Boil and I might have found your lost captain.” </p><p>“Where?” Cody was proud of the fact he managed to keep his voice relatively level and even as he breathed that word. </p><p>“Alive and well, sir, don’t you worry. He was on the latest bird with the Senator. Guess he ended up deciding to take a flying leap out of the LAAT when they were over the desert.” </p><p>“Kriff you, Waxer.” He could distantly hear Rex’s grumpy response sounding tinny and distant over the communications line and he just knew Waxer was deliberately airing their conversation to get under his uptight <i>vod’s</i> skin.</p><p>“Watch the mouth, Waxer. Otherwise, I’ll let Captain Rex pick out his choice of details for you when we return to the ship. I’m sure the <i>vodes</i> on latrine duty are looking for a break.” </p><p>“You’re no fun, Captain.”</p><p>“Be that as it may, watch what you say on an open mic.” </p><p>“Sir, yes, sir.” Waxer said glumly and he could hear the sulky look he was wearing in the man’s voice even without being there to see it. </p><p>Still, Cody’s feet had automatically been taking him on a beeline directly towards the LZ all the same and within a few minutes, he was there, scanning the scattered crowd of dirt-smeared white for a familiar blond head.</p><p>He quickly got out of the way as a pair of Jedi appeared pushing a gurney with a couple of their wounded compatriots. One was missing a hand and appeared to be under the thrall of some pretty good pain meds if the glassy look in his eyes was anything to go by but the other, the red-head was complaining bitterly at the medic in charge. </p><p>“Really, this is completely unnecessary; I’m more than capable of walking on my own.” </p><p>“You almost had your leg severed by a lightsaber, you’re not walking anywhere, sir.” The clone medic said with a thoroughly unamused look and he gestured to the corpsman to push the gurney forward towards the medical area. </p><p>"Nonsense, it was just a scratch."

</p><p>“Just let them do their jobs, Master. You’re wasting your breath.” The more grievously injured Jedi called, slurring his words ever so slightly in the process. </p><p>“They have far more wounded patients to see, Anakin.” </p><p>“I’m aware of that but I don’t think they are interested in listening to you waste their time telling them how to do their job.” A Jedi with common sense? </p><p>How wrong they would all be proven soon enough. </p><p>Cody caught the poor exasperated medic’s eye as he walked past and bit back a chuckle when the man rolled his eyes heavenward ever so slightly as though he’d been listening to this for a while. He offered the man a tight, commiserating smile but didn’t say anything as he and his two patients were ferried off towards the med-tents. </p><p>It was hard to spot Rex amongst the identically armored brothers but Cody knew his friend well enough to spot his unique body language all the same. It also helped he was still standing there talking to Waxer and Boil with his non-regulation facial hair and stars grant him <i>patience</i> he distinctly remembered ordering that <i>di’kut</i> to shave that hideous moustache off before they left Kamino. </p><p>“Boil! KP duty for the next month. I know I told you to shave before we shipped out. You look like you tried to fornicate with a kriffing wookie.” </p><p>The scout jumped to attention at his CO’s bark. “Uh, my clippers were busted?” He tried to belabor the point somewhat weakly. It was no secret Boil counted his facial hair as a point of pride despite the amount of teasing he got from his fellow brothers. </p><p>“If you can’t find a pair, you can borrow mine. Now put your karking bucket back on before a Jedi sees that travesty you dare call a face.” </p><p>Waxer did his best to smother his snort of amusement but didn’t quite manage which drew Cody’s baleful eye. </p><p>“You have something to add, trooper?”</p><p>“No, sir. Just wondering if we can petition to have him wear his bucket twenty-four seven and spare us the horror of looking at his face.”</p><p>“Need I remind you both that we are in the field and not on some training lark? There are <i>Jetii</i> watching us and we have to comport ourselves appropriately.” Cody could feel that familiar vein in his temple start to throb. “Both of you get out of my sight before I have you scrubbing the decks in the barracks for the rest of the year.” </p><p>“Sir!” Both scouts said, snapping to attention. They saluted both officers quickly and turned heel to retreat before Cody found some new onerous task for them to do. Still, their CO didn’t miss the way Boil reached out and punched Waxer in the arm hard. </p><p>“Kriff you, Waxer.” He hissed aside to his friend as they walked away. “You aren’t as funny as you think you are, ya vapehead.”</p><p> “Hey, do you think I would look good with some facial hair?”</p><p>“No, I don’t, you’re ugly enough as it is.”</p><p>“Says the wookie-karker.” </p><p>Thankfully for everyone involved, their bickering eventually faded from earshot and Cody turned towards Rex. </p><p>“Really, <i>shabuir</i>?” He demanded rudely and Rex pulled off his helmet to give him a crooked smile. </p><p>“Finally decided to join the fight, <i>ori’vod?</i>”</p><p>“Don’t make me deck you in front of all your men, <i>di’kut</i>.” Cody groused and reached out a hand to grab his friend by the nape so he could pull him in close in a half-hug that ended when their foreheads butted together. “I thought you were dead, you ass.” </p><p>He confessed those words softly like a secret shared just between the two of them. </p><p>The military man inside of Rex wanted to object to such overt displays of affection in the open, especially in front of his men. But he knew they were hardly the only two <i>vode</i> who had exchanged a keldabe kiss today so he just shoved that voice down and enjoyed the quiet intimacy of the moment for as long as it could last. </p><p>“It was a near thing <i>vod</i>. I thought I was a goner when the Senator and I got tossed off that LAAT.” His hand came up to mirror Cody's grip by curling around the nape of the other captain’s neck. “Then I thought we were going to hoof it across fifty clicks of desert but they finally managed to find us.” </p><p>“A com would have been nice.” </p><p>“Sorry,<i>buir</i>. It got busted in the landing, I’ll be sure to do that next time.” Rex teased, using the Mando’a word for parent because apparently Cody had decided he was his kriffing mother or something.</p><p>“I guess that explains why I couldn’t hail you when I hit dirt.” Cody said as his eyes finally drifted closed and he let himself feel relief at knowing his best friend had made it. “Dying on your first mission would have been pretty embarrassing for a clone with your level of training.” </p><p>“Tell me about it. I didn’t want you to get to the afterlife and bust my <i>shebs</i> for the rest of eternity because I went out on my first mission.” Neither of them were ready to mentally parse the fact that for <i>many</i> of their brothers, that sad fate had come to pass. The only consolation was that they had gone out fighting, protecting the Jedi and the interests of the Republic. </p><p>For a clone, there was no better death that could be had. Or at least, that was what they had been told from the crèche.</p><p>“You’re damned right I would. Let’s make a promise, no matter what happens in this coming conflict, we make it through it.” The words burst out of him before he could even think to filter himself. </p><p>“You know that’s an impossible promise to make, Codes.” Rex cautioned, slitting his eyes open enough to look at his friend somewhat concerned.</p><p>“Don’t care; lie to me if you have to. Just promise me you won’t die, Rex.” </p><p>“Fine, <i>utreekov</i>. I promise.” The blond captain finally said with a sigh and squeezed the back of Cody’s neck reassuringly. With the entirety of this terrifying war stretched out in front of them like a shadow, both men knew there was a good chance one of them might end up breaking that promise. </p><p>But for now, that promise would have to do. It would sustain them through the dark times ahead and on more than one occasion, knowing the other was waiting for them to come back alive gave them the strength to keep going on when all hope seemed lost. </p><p>Their trainers, the Kaminoans and even the GAR itself might have told the clones that the greatest honor was to die for their Jedi and for the Republic. But that promise to keep fighting and to survive, to return back to the other at the end of the day was the real thing to strive for. </p><p>They knew the real truth, that it was more important to <i>live</i> rather than senselessly spend their lives in pursuant of what their trainers and conditioning told them to. Yes, it was good to die for their Jedi if the situation called for it and if the defense of the Republic demanded the ultimate sacrifice, it was one they would make without question.</p><p>But to live was just as valid a choice as deciding to die. It was the harder choice in a lot of ways but that foolish, rash promise made between two young, innocent shinies on the eve of the war that would end all wars, well, that meant something too. </p><p>In the end, it was enough.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Lisia also ruined me by pointing out I was apparently channeling Hamilton's Washington's line about "Dying is easy, living is harder" without even consciously THINKING about it and I laughed myself silly cause...yeah apparently I was.<br/></p><hr/><p>Mando'a to Basic<br/>Buir - Parent (Mando'a is gender-neutral so despite it often being translated as father in this fic, it's leaning more towards mother like mother-henning in spirit.)<br/>Di'kut - Idiot<br/>Jetii/Jetiise - Jedi, singular and plural<br/>Kaminii - Kaminoan<br/>Osik - Dung<br/>Ori’vod - Older or big brother<br/>Shebs - Backside or buttocks<br/>Shabuir- A strong insult, worse than calling someone a jerk. Think asshole or something to that effect.<br/>Utreekov- Idiot or airhead, slightly different from di'kut.<br/>Vod/Vode - Sibling or brother / Brothers</p></blockquote></div></div>
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